Willem Anthony Ockerse Quotes

As a minister and public official I must desire that it [the draft Constitution] be accepted, understanding well enough the need that we have some form of definitive organization. But as a citizen having to live under such a constitution, I disapprove of it and reject it.

The constitution would be based on the rights and duties of man and citizens; on civil liberty and equality; on popular sovereignty by representation; on an energetic and responsible executive government; on a fully unified administration … on the separation of church and state; and the right of the people to revise their own constitution.

Our Constitution does not profess to have been established simply by the majority, but by 'the people' - the minority as much as the majority.

Our nation is built on the bedrock principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

To establish republican government, it is necessary to effect a constitution in which the will of the nation shall have an organized control over the actions of its government, and its citizens a regular protection against its oppressions

The authority of the people is a necessary foundation for a constitution

A constitution is made of a spirit, institutions, and a practice.

God leaves to Man the choice of Forms in Government; and those who constitute one Form, may abrogate it.

The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.

The only moral Foundation of Government is the Consent of the People. But to what an Extent Shall We carry this Principle? Shall We Say, that every Individual of the Community, old and young, male and female, as well as rich and poor, must consent, expressly to every Act of Legislation? No, you will say. This is impossible. How then does the Right arise in the Majority to govern the Minority, against their Will? Whence arises the Right of the Men to govern Women, without their Consent? Whence the Right of the old to bind the Young, without theirs.

A Constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory... It is made for people of fundamentally differing views …

Constitutions are but paper; society is the substratum of government.

The new Constitution should be ratified in the most unexceptional form, and by the supreme authority of the people themselves.

Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper.

… the decay of the liberties of the Dutch republic proceeded from three causes: 1. The perfect unanimity requisite on all occasions. 2. Their obligation to consult their constituents. 3. Their voting by provinces. This last destroyed the equality of representation, and the liberties of Great Britain also are sinking from the same defect.

I consent to this constitution because I can expect no better.

…the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, […] cannot be compared with the means by which most Governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude…

As for us BRITONS, thank Heaven, we have a better Sense of Government deliver’d to us from our Ancestors. We have the Notion of A PUBLIC and A CONSTITUTION; how a Legislative, and how an Executive is model’d.

In a republic, if laws are not always respectable, they are always respected.

Men are born free, that since they begin with no government, they must therefore institute government by voluntary agreement, and thus government must be their agent, not their superior.

The people made this government, and not the government the people. Destroy the intelligence of the people, and the government could not exist for a day; — destroy this government, and the people would create another, and yet another, of no less perfect symmetry.

The President of the Republic in our constitution will be like the sun which, firmly in the centre, gives life to the universe. The supreme authority must be permanent because in non-hereditary systems one needs, more than in others, a fixed point around which circle the magistrates and citizens, men and things. For a people to be free it must have a strong government which possesses sufficient means to free them from popular anarchy and the abuse of the powerful

The foundation of civil power lies in the people.

What matters it to us at present whether Monarchy is reprobated by the Almighty or not, It will be time enough to consider what kind of Government is best suited for America when we have determined ourselves independent; indeed every man who wishes to be free will be forming Opinions relative to the form of Government

The infinitely wise and good Being has given us the sum and substance of the most perfect form of civil government in his word.... I mean that ancient plan of civil policy, delineated for the chosen tribes of Israel. In that divinely authorized constitution, we find no king, no despot, no emperor, no tyrant, no perpetual dictator allowed of.